A SENIOR council finance officer who started work as a 16-year-old handwriting checks has attended his last meeting before retirement.
Nigel Aurelius has been responsible for Torfaen Borough Council’s finances, and for advising elected councillors, for 20 years.
He is retiring as the borough council’s deputy chief executive and in September it appointed Andrew Lovegrove to replace him as chief finance officer.
Tributes were paid to Mr Aurelius at the council’s January meeting, the last before his retirement, with the current year’s budget, approved in March, the final one prepared by Mr Aurelius.
At the meeting he recalled starting work, for the former Gwent County Council, in 1979, with the council’s computer, “probably less powerful than a smart phone today” occuping a whole floor of County Hall.
“I started work as a 16-year-old stacking 5,000 cheques a day and writing salary cards, that was all done by hand not machine.”
Mr Aurelius, who has a salary range of between £101,852 to a maximum of £111,405 a year, told councillors: “That has struck with me and I’ve never forgot this organisation relies on everybody not just a few of us at the top.”
The outgoing deputy also praised current chief executive Stephen Vickers and said “hybrid working” that has allowed staff to work from home as well as council offices had presented “advantages and challenges”.
But he stressed the importance of attending the workplace and also took aim at the number of councillors who only log into meetings online.
On staff attendance Mr Aurelius said: “Coming into the workplace is important to know which organisation you are working for and why.
“I would also add this is a debating chamber and it would be nice to see it a little more regularly full.”
He praised staff and councillors he’d worked with past and present and support he’d received, in 2017, when he said he’d gone “from playing football to major open heart surgery”.
Chief executive Mr Vickers, who took up his post three years ago, revealed the council’s cost saving plan, to address a medium term funding shortfall, of £35 million, had been named ‘project Apollo” after Mr Aurelius referenced a NASA employee who described the troubled space mission as potentially its “finest hour” rather than a disaster.
Council leader Anthony Hunt said Mr Aurelius is retiring after “45 and a bit years of service to the borough” and said: “He has always remained professional in providing expert advice and his knowledge of finance but also with a human quality and the perspective of someone who is a resident himself.”
Mr Aurelius joined Torfaen Borough Council when the unitary authority was formed in 1996.